Meet Seianti. Her nose is rather prettier than itshould be. Her mouth is a little smaller and more girlish. She has shed a few years - and at least one double chin. But although the sculptor who shaped this face from terracotta made a few flattering improvements, he captured Seianti's likeness remarkably well. This face belonged to a real woman, a short, podgy, middle-aged Etruscan aristocrat who died around 2200 years ago. When Seianti died, she was buried in a huge terracotta casket topped by the life-sized figure of a woman reclining on a soft pillow, a bronze mirror in her jewelled hand. In 1887, the British Museum bought the sarcophagus -complete with skeleton. Foryears, there have been doubts about whethet the bones actually belonged to Seianti Hanunia Tlesnasa, the woman whose name was engraved on the casket. And if they did, was the recliningfigure really her? Modern forensic techniques have finally provided the answers.
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